With the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League around the corner, the digital streaming partner has started onboarding sponsors for the cricket league.
The video streaming platform has so far signed 10 sponsors for IPL 2021.
Dream11 is the co-presenting sponsor, Upstox and Vimal Elaichi are the co-powered by sponsors. Other sponsors include Phone Pe, Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), Unacademy, Pharmeasy, Livspace, Swiggy, and Parle Agro that have come on board as associate sponsors.
Last year, Disney+Hotstar had got as many as 13 sponsors, up from 10 sponsors that the platform had on boarded for the 12th season of IPL.
“All key features such as Super 4s, Super 6s, Fall Of Wickets, Milestones, and Super Savers have sold out within a short period, and we see early closures across categories,” said Nitin Bawankule, President - Ad Sales, Star & Disney India.
For the 13th edition, ad rates on Disney+Hotstar saw a jump of more than 50 percent. The cost per mille (here, 1 mille = 1,000 views of an ad) on the platform was Rs 180 for a 10-second spot, up from Rs 100-110 last year.
Also, last year the ad inventory was sold out a week before the IPL started, Shrenik Gandhi, CEO, and co-founder, White Rivers Media, a digital marketing agency, had pointed out in an earlier interview Moneycontrol.
The platform last year minted around Rs 200-250 crore in advertising revenues, according to industry estimates. And this is despite drop in viewership as compared to 2019 when matches were available for free on the platform.
In 2020, Disney+Hotstar had put IPL behind paywall and this impacted its viewership. However, the platform will continue with the same strategy this year as well.
The series will be streamed on Disney+ Hotstar in five languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil and will be exclusively available to subscribers of Disney+Hotstar VIP which is available for Rs 399 for 12 months and Disney+Hotstar Premium which will cost a subscriber Rs 1,499 for 12 months.
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